Although much of the research and literature on pioneering Maltese photographer Leandro Preziosi (1830-69) has focused on his life and technique, a great deal of information about him and his practice can be gleaned from his sitters, and, in that regard, the seams of his oeuvre still leave much yet to be mined.

This article reinforces the thesis that Preziosi and his wife, who acted very much as his business manager, were motivated by the reputation and income-generation of their business. Rather than attempting to record all strata of society in Malta, they sought out well-to-do sitters who could afford their prices and broadcast their wares to a wider audience.

Colonel G. R. H. Kennedy, RA, and J. Murray

The multitude of British servicemen who were transported across the Mediterranean by the metaphorical conveyor belt of the British Empire, coupled with the cartomania craze (the collecting of cartes de visites so entertainingly described in Paul Frecker’s recent publication of the same name), suited the Preziosis very well. This article examines a few of the top-ranking servicemen who patronised the Preziosi studio.

The two highest-ranking naval commissions in the Mediterranean in the 19th century were the commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Fleet and the admiral superintendent of the Royal Malta Dockyard. The former occupied Admiralty House on South Street in Valletta, and the latter, the Admiralty House on the waterfront in Vittoriosa, sadly destroyed as a result of the bombing of Grand Harbour and its environs during World War II.

We start with two consecutive admirals superintendent of the dockyard, Admiral Sir Horatio Austin (1801-65) and Admiral Sir Henry Kellett (1806-75). Both these sailors led adventurous lives, yet they shared some common themes.

In the same way that the Antarctic exploits of Captain Robert Falcon Scott captured and still excites the imagination of the public today, the 19th-century equivalent was Sir John Franklin, who set out in 1845 to traverse the uncharted Northwest Passage (the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America). Unfortunately, Franklin’s ships became icebound and their entire crews died from starvation, scurvy and hypothermia in 1847.

The admiral appears relaxed, almost amused by this sitting

In 1850, several expeditions, both British and American, set out to search for Franklin. It was only in 1854 that Franklin’s fate was ascertained from eyewitness accounts of the local Inuit hunters. Even so, Lady Franklin’s persistence led to another 25 searches to be conducted over the next 25 years, which only helped to encourage speculation and hope on the part of a public eager to learn about the explorer’s grisly fate.

Major-General Ridley with Captain Henry Bowden

Austin, who joined the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, had been part of an earlier expedition, in 1824-25, to investigate the Northwest Passage. So when the Admiralty planned an ambitious new expedition to search for Franklin in 1850, Austin was appointed to command HMS Resolute to lead an expedition of four ships. They only found traces of Franklin’s odyssey; however, Austin’s masterminding of sledging expeditions confirmed the practicability of man-hauling as a means of exploring the Arctic.

Austin was superintendent of Malta Dockyard from April 6, 1863, to November 26, 1864. He was promoted vice-admiral on October 20, 1864, and was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on March 28, 1865, just eight months before his death.

Preziosi captured Austin in a rather informal pose, seated with his left hand resting on a small occasional table. The admiral is not wearing full formal dress but his everyday uniform; instead of a formal bicorn hat, his peaked cap is placed on his knee. The admiral appears relaxed, almost amused by this sitting; a man at ease with himself and those around him for whom he bears responsibility.

Admiral Sir Henry Kellett was born five years after Austin and was not involved in the Napoleonic Wars; however, he too had been appointed to undertake hydrographic surveys and demonstrated a technical bent. Kellett was also engaged in the searches for Sir John Franklin. In fact, Kellett took over command of HMS Resolute in 1852.

Readers might correctly make the connection between HMS Resolute and the Resolute Desk used by US presidents in the Oval Office of the White House. When the ice melted in the spring of 1855, the drifting ship was recovered by an American whaling skipper. The United States Congress purchased the derelict and gave her, refitted, to Queen Victoria in 1856. After HMS Resolute was decommissioned from the Royal Navy in 1879, she was salvaged for timber. Three desks were made from the ships’ timbers. The most famous of these was the one given to US President Rutherford Hayes in 1880 as a gesture of gratitude for the rescue and return of the abandoned ship.

Kellet’s weather-beaten demeanour exhibits supreme self-confidence

It is a great irony that this famous desk should have originated from the timbers of a ship that was once commanded by a captain, Horatio Austin, who at the beginning of his naval career was engaged in the attacks during the war of 1812-14 on Washington and Baltimore that led to the burning of the very building in which the desk is located today.

Kellett took over from Austin as Admiral Superintendent of the Malta Dockyard and served in Malta until 1869, when he was appointed commander-in-chief, China Station. He retired in 1871 and died in 1875.

Turning to Admiral Kellet’s portrait, we see a more formal, bust-sized portrait of the subject wearing his medals, among which is the breast badge of a Companion of the Order of the Bath. Kellet’s weather-beaten demeanour exhibits supreme self-confidence.

Mrs Kennedy

Preziosi’s clientele also extended to the senior officers of the British Army. Illustrated here is Colonel George Robert Harry Kennedy, his wife and two daughters. Kennedy commanded the Royal Artillery in Malta from 1863-67. His predecessor, Colonel Edward Crofton, died unexpectedly in Malta in July 1863, and Kennedy was sent to Malta immediately to replace him. He arrived in Malta the following month, accompanied by his wife, two daughters and a son. Their son, Robert, died tragically in Valletta, aged just 17, a few months after the family’s arrival.

On a happier note, just before the family’s departure from Malta in 1867, Katherine Jane, the younger daughter, featured here, married Thomas Palmer Senior, 8th (the King’s) Regiment. The ceremony took place at St Paul’s Collegiate church, Valletta, and was presided over by the Lord Bishop of Gibraltar. The four photographs of the Kennedy family were taken in 1865. It is unusual to come across Preziosi’s photographs of a whole family, albeit shot separately. These four photographs come from the Bruce Brine album. Helpfully, Brine has named and dated the photographs.

Preziosi shows Kennedy seated with his aide-de-camp, J. Murray, in attendance. Protocol dictated that the senior subjects in a group would generally be seated; this was particularly so if one of the sitters was a member of the aristocracy.

Katherine Jane Kennedy

Katherine Jane Kennedy’s older sister

Mrs Kennedy appears to be particularly apprehensive about her picture being taken; she is dressed formally, wearing a headdress that appears to belong to a previous era. The charming Katherine Jane adopts a more sympathetic pose, although her dress seems dark and drab. Her sister wears what must have been a colourful and striking outfit suitable for a young lady, although, like her mother, she appears rather discomfited by the whole experience.

Major-General Ridley

Major-General William John Ridley took up his appointment on the (commander-in-chief’s) staff commanding 1st Brigade only two months after the Kennedys arrived in Malta. Two portraits of him by Preziosi have so far been identified. In one, Ridley stands confidently on his own, leaning against a studio column and, in the other, he is shown seated beside his ADC, Captain Henry George Bowden of the Scots Guards, who appears to be offering him a notebook or possibly a cigarette.

As the second most senior military official in Malta, Ridley frequently served as acting governor during the transitions between the tenures of governors John Le Marchant and Henry Knight Storks, and again between Storks and Patrick Grant. He also performed this task when those governors were absent from Malta, which, in the case of Storks, occurred for a considerable period when the latter was sent to Jamaica to investigate the disturbances of 1865.

When his five years’ service in Malta came to an end, Ridley left the island at the beginning of November 1868. In the same month, a shocked nation learned of his sudden death. The inquest that investigated his demise recorded a verdict of death from natural causes.

Bowden’s career after he quit Malta in 1867 took a quite unexpected turn; he left the army and entered the Roman Catholic Church. After taking Holy Orders, he became a very popular superior of the Oratory of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Brompton, in London. At one stage, there were even rumours that Fr Sebastian (his religious name) was to be Archbishop Vaughan’s successor as Roman Catholic Bishop of Salford.

A humorous article in The Sketch newspaper of June 1916 headed ‘Cannon and Cassock’ reported: “As far as I know, the Oratory is the only Catholic church in London that owns a priest who pays his calls on horseback – Fr Sebastian Bowden, once in the Guards, and still a guardsman in the way he sits on his steed, is still a soldier in his stride, even under his cassock.”

This selection of Preziosi’s photographs gives an inkling of the variety of British visitors who brought their exploits and patronage to Malta in the 19th century, thus enriching their own society as well as that of subsequent generations – to our collective advantage.

All the photographs featured in this article are taken by Leandro Preziosi and come from the author’s collection.